343 Pitched '20-30' Halo Ideas, Including New ODST Games

In a bit of disappointing news for Halo fans, it's been revealed that 343 Industries had between 20-30 unsuccessful pitches for Xbox's flagship sci-fi shooter franchise, including a return to its popular Halo 3: ODST spin-off story. After a bit of a rocky start, Halo Infinite is still ongoing. While it can't boast nearly the number of player numbers as competitors like Call of Duty or Fortnite, its latest season, named Reckoning, provided a much-needed shot in the arm for the playerbase.

Before Bungie left Microsoft to pioneer the modern live service model with Destiny, its handling of Xbox's most important property was incredibly well-received. One of its most highly praised titles, Halo 3: ODST, followed up the third mainline game two years later with a darker side story based around a group of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers exploring the ruined city of New Mombasa. With ODST having a smaller scale than the mainline series, the game took only 14 months to make. Since 343 Industries was created to take control of the franchise after Bungie's departure, many Halo fans have been clamoring for more smaller spin-off stories in the same vain as ODST.

On Twitter, a former lead designer at 343 Industries, Kevin Schmitt, spilled the beans that, over a span of 12 years at the studio, there had been 20-30 pitched ideas for Halothat «would have totally worked in the Halo universe.» He mentioned that several of these pitches involved returning to the beloved ODST side story with both single and multiplayer experiences. Schmitt also mentioned that some of these pitches focused on more intimate character stories, and that one of them was a much darker idea.

It's unknown whether it was the 343 studio heads or Xbox leadership that were shutting down all these interesting Halo ideas. Schmitt did mention all these pitches taking place over the span of 12 years. Recent years have seen an Xbox that has allowed many of its first-party teams to continue working on smaller passion projects,